Selection of an antenna to use for a mobile platform, such as an aircraft, may involve tradeoffs between countervailing considerations. For example, there may be a tradeoff between various transmission or reception concerns and other countervailing considerations, such as aerodynamic profile. To illustrate, a conventional phased array antenna may have a limited scan angle, e.g. up to an angle of about 65° from a vertical axis toward a horizon. However, phased array antennas provide a small aerodynamic profile that result in little or no additional drag on the mobile platform. In contrast, a dish antenna may provide a wider scanning pattern, but may incur a significant aerodynamic profile penalty that results in higher drag on the mobile platform. Other tradeoffs may be considered with other types of antennas. For example, continuous transverse stub array antennas may provide a wide scanning range with a relatively small aerodynamic profile. However, continuous transverse stub array antennas tend to scan at relatively low speeds, which may not be suitable for applications where high scanning speed is desired.
In addition, different communications applications executing on the mobile platform may benefit from different antenna profile types. However, providing multiple antennas may add complexity, cost, bulk, weight, or some combination of these undesirable attributes to the mobile platform.